Reports from the cutting edge of half assed secular parenting

Long Overdue Update Post!

Hey there internet friends! It certainly has been a long time since we had a post here at Raising Hellions. If this blog is the only way you keep up with me then it would certainly look like I fell off the face of the Earth! Which is not true at all. But there have been some big changes in my life the last year that I should probably explain to both of my readers.

Thing one is a Great News Thing. Last year I was given the opportunity to join an awesome collection of bloggers at the newest Skepchick sister site Grounded Parents. The GP’s are an awesome gang of intelligent and funny moms and dads and other interested parties who are dedicated to secular and science based parenting. We aren’t all experts, heck most of us are just avid amateurs, but we blog to share our stories, our passions, our insights and our gripes. It has been an incredible amount of fun and I feel like I’ve made some awesome E-migo’s . You can check out what I’ve written for GP here. I’m especially proud of my series examining common social media memes that give bad parenting advice or commentary, the Internet Meme Demolition Derby. I’ll try and get into the habit of posting a link here whenever I have a new GP piece, usually on every 10 days or so.

The other thing is more of a Bad News/Good News thing. Last year I began seeing a psychologist for the first time in my life. What started as a way to ask some questions about how much of my Dad’s hypochondria I inherited (the answer is a good bit) became a long overdue examination of my own mental well being. So I’ve been diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The anxiety was bringing on panic attacks and the ADHD has been interfering with my life for 45 years. I now take Stratterra , which is a non stimulant ADHD treatment which luckily also has an off label application for anxiety treatment. I’m also benefiting a great deal from the weekly talk therapy sessions, hashing out some of my issues with my particular life situation. We’re having some interesting discussions about how hard it can be to be an extrovert who has to spend too much time cooped up in non social situations, something I’ve had to do as a SAHD for 9 years now.

So the gist is that my SAHD and skeptical parent blogging has moved to another venue and the personal blogging has been… unmotivated. But I need to write more. At the blog Writing about Writing, fellow GP Chris Breechen exhorts those interested in becoming writers to write every day. Now I’m not sure I am interested in becoming a “writer” in the sense that I’d like make money at it or anything, especially if it would interfere with my real job of supporting the Girl and raising our Hellions, which is what keeps me in whiskey money. But I do want to become a better blogger, which requires practice. So Raising Hellions will continue as my personal blog, a home for my writing about friends and family and whatever else comes to mind. I plan on restarting the Monday Muse posts, I have a bunch of new music to share with y’all. And I’ve decided to make Raising Hellions the home of my weekly review and preview essays for the Up from the Pit Fantasy Football league, the first of which will be landing sometime before the kickoff of tonight’s Green Bay/Seattle season opener. UFTP Fantasy Football is a labor of love, a low stakes friends and family affair started by my friend Kester and myself when we grew frustrated with the way previous leagues had been run. I had a lot of fun writing these last year, here’s a sample.

Up from the Pit Fantasy Football Week 7 Review
or The battle for second place rages on.

Hey there Pitters! Better late than never comes this weeks recap of bone crushing Fantasy Football action. The Return of the Sunday Hotties (135 pts) seem to be intent on erasing the sibling kissing taste of last years tie for the Championship. Another first place finish widens Abby’s lead in the overall standings to 8 points over the Grendels with seven weeks to go. The Hotties attack this week was led by Matt Forte’s (28 pts) three touchdown performance and Vincent Jackson’s (25 pts) 138 yd, 2 td scorching of the beat up Atlanta Falcons.

The Green Arrows (103 pts) surged back into contention for second place when their namesake wideout AJ Green (21 pts) blasted out of his slump with 155 yards against the Lions, as well as a 22 pt day from veteran RB Frank Gore (more on him later). Captain Chaos (96 pts) closed to one point behind the Grendels for third place on the year on the back of Aaron Rodger’s 28 point Sunday.

The Grendels (94 pts) continued their surprising rise from last years basement with another MVP level game from possible Terminator robot Peyton Manning (31 pts), although that wasn’t enough in real football to stay winless as The Bronco’s fell to the Colts in Manning’s return to Indianapolis.

Tito’s Puentes (80 pts) dialed up Cybertron and received help from Megatron (Calvin Johnson) who caught every ball thrown anywhere near him on Sunday for 27 pts. The Least of Your Problems (75 pts) squeaked past Team scheirer (74 pts), led by the Carolina Defense mangling the Rams to the tune of 19 pts, while TS suffered from disappointing outings across the board (although AJ has to be happy with the 30 pts Cam Newton put up in Thurday night action lasy night.) Breaking Wind (67 pts) continued to struggle despite the efforts of Possible Giant Leprechaun Colin Kaepernick (21 pts) and the long awaited return of Rob Gronkowski (11 pts).

Player of the Week: Peyton Manning (again)

Coaching Genius Move of the Week: Nobody. The starters did their jobs this week and no coaching gamble really paid off.

Put Me in Coach Award: Oof this was a rough week for QB’s. Tito’s Puentes swapped Nick Foles (6 pts) in for Matt Ryan (25 pts) on the advice of a lot of experts. But the award this week goes to TLoYP, who managed to miss Andrew Luck’s (31 pts) triumphant performance in upsetting the Bronco’s, although is is not Karl’s fault the red hot Jay Cutler (1 pt) suffered a torn groin early in the game.

Transaction News: We had our first big trade this year as Captain Chaos offered to solve The Green Arrows’ revolving door at QB in exchange for dealing from the GA running back depth. Aaron Rodgers and Frank Gore swap teams as both coaches fight to catch the Grendels for second place.

This week features a huge slate of byes, with Chicago, Tennessee, Indianapolis, San Diego, Baltimore, and Houston taking the week off to work on their Halloween Costumes.

Good luck and have fun this weekend!

So that’s the plan folks. Music, Football, more silly pix of the kids. Raising Hellions is back in action. Hope everyone has fun.

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boo to psychological/emotional/mental disorders but yay for modern chemicals that help! I’m happy for you Lou. (is that appropriate? I am happy if you are feeling better, not happy about the dx…you know what I’m saying, right??) And just as a side note, sometimes I feel like the past eight years as a SAHM have been hard for me because I am an introvert at heart and never got any time to just be quiet and think. I guess it has it’s challenges no matter who you are! 🙂